Chapter 308: Braving the Crater!
Chapter 308: Braving the Crater!
Ling Yun gave Tang Meng a call to explain the reason for sending Zhuang Meifeng and Xiao Meimei to him. He also instructed Tang Meng to ensure that they stay for a few days.
Ling Yun also phoned Xue Meining to bring Little White home before ten at night.
He shut his phone off after the calls to ensure he could fully focus.
Ling Yun had surfed the web once. The more he used it, the more familiar he became. The purpose of the search this time was to understand the myths and legends of Huaxia.
Ancient mythologies were inseparable from one key concept — supernatural powers.
That wasn't important for ordinary people. It probably only came up during idle chatting for them.
But, it was different for Ling Yun. Once he reached the base level for the Qi Cultivation stage, his powers would almost be approaching the supernatural.
That meant that Ling Yun would be able to use skills like those in the myths and legends.
Ling Yun used the Duniang search engine and soon immersed himself into it.
For four hours straight, Ling Yun learned about legends such as "Pangu Separates the Sky from the Earth", "Nuwa Creates Man", "Houyi Shoots the Suns", "The Battle Between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You", "The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors", and "Yu the Great Subdues the Flood". He then proceeded to read "Investiture of Gods", "Journey to the West", "Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".
Other than the separation of sky from earth and the creation of man, the rest could have been done in the Cultivation World.
It was already seven thirty in the evening when Ling Yun finally stood up from his seat. Ling Yun managed to extract the relevant information and grasp the key contexts from the legends.
He had them all in his mind, made possible by his photographic memory.
This world seems to have lost a great era. Either the people of that era disappeared after being forced out of existence by some unseen forces or they have been covered up by someone...
Myths and legends were perhaps unbelievable, but Ling Yun knew that that was because the ancient people hadn't understood it or had been downright ignorant.
The ancient saying was right that there was no smoke without fire. There was naturally a reason for myths and legends to be passed down over thousands of years.
Ling Yun smirked at the notion that he would have company on this road of cultivation.
He finally realized the importance of being humble and low-key throughout his research!
If the people from the legends had really disappeared because of some unforeseen forces, Ling Yun could be as high-profile as he wished. He would become a godlike presence to the current city dwellers.
However, this was most likely far from truth. There were Xiantian Realm martial artists, dragons, the nine-tailed celestial fox, the caster of the Yin Yang Dragon Lock Spell and the existence of the Emperor Brush...
The Emperor Brush would have been an item to die for even in the Cultivation World. For some reason, it had continued to be dormant until now. It stored an immeasurable amount of immortal spiritual energy!
Only Immortal Objects could store Immortal Spiritual Energy!
He was just a few hours away from heading into the Crater. Ling Yun decided to grab some food nearby before continuing his search on the web.
This time, Ling Yun searched for a site where he could see the translation of Traditional Chinese characters to Simplified Chinese characters and started to memorize them.
His objective was to be able to read the book given to him by Li Yunxiang's mother.
There were more than three thousand common chinese characters. He used the translation tool on the website to see the transformation. His demonic memory ensured that he memorized everything he saw.
That's about it. There is no need to learn those words that are rarely used.
At eleven thirty at night, Ling Yun shut down his computer and checked his items again. He stored two sets of sports wear and shoes into the spatial ring and left home.
The weather was perfect. A crescent moon hung in the skies, illuminated by many stars. It was nearly midnight. The temperature was around twenty degrees Celsius. Ling Yun hugged Little White and used the Stellar Condensation Technique to get to Qingxi Villa District.
Ling Yun took the chance to absorb as much spiritual energy as he could at Mansion Number One before heading off.
Ling Yun headed straight to the Tiger Cliff for Dugu Mo. Tonight was the promised night of battle with Dugu Mo.
Ling Yun headed straight for the peak of Dragon Mountain. He was as fast as a spark.
"Eh?! Dugu Mo isn't here yet?" Ling Yun exclaimed when he found no one in sight.
Ling Yun was worried initially. Could he have wiped out too much of Dugu Mo's memory that night? Given Dugu Mo's character, he should have been lying in wait for Ling Yun!
That was impossible. Ling Yun remembered that night vividly. He had specifically erased only two hours of Dugu Mo's memory when he had been at Qi Cultivation Level Nine.
Ling Yun had had full control of the Mystical Dragon Howl. It wasn't possible for any deviations to happen with Dugu Mo if he had managed to preserve the memories of Qin Qiuyue, Tang Meng and his friends.
Pacing around at the peak of Dragon Mountain with his hands behind his back, he came to notice some words carved onto the railing at the edge of the Tiger Cliff.
It was Dugu Mo's handwriting. "Ling Yun, something urgent came up and I left after waiting for you for half an hour. Let's duel another day!" It was signed, "Dugu".
These words were carved on the two centimeter diameter railing with the tip of a sword. Even though the words were small, they were legible.
Ling Yun was right about Dugu Mo being early. Ling Yun used two fingers to pinch the railing. The cyclical shape flattened to a four centimeters wide piece of iron plate which erased the words.
Ling Yun then used two fingers to carve a "Understood!" on the deformed iron.
There was no need for the duel since Dugu Mo was not there, but that also meant that his plan to get Dugu Mo to explore the crater with him was in vain.
Ling Yun smiled and stood up. His eyes were now fixed on the black hole. The crater looked like a huge monster's gaping mouth in the night light.
Many people must have gone down these few days. It should be quite fun!
"Let's go, Little White!"
Ling Yun went to the other side of the Dragon Mountain and headed down from there. It was steep with no visible road, which was really not a problem at all for them. They were deep into the dark woods in no time. They traveled towards the valley between Nancui Peak and Dragon Mountain.
They stopped in front of that old tree they had visited previously.
It was only two hundred meters away from the edge of the Crater. Ling Yun could reach the edge in less than ten seconds.
"Little White, we are going to explore the Crater. Do you think this hole is connected to it?"
Little White fully understood Ling Yun's question. Her narrow foxy eyes blinked as she shook her head before quickly nodding.
Ling Yun didn't know what Little White meant with those gestures, but it didn't matter to him. He laughed and said, "Alright, I won't be able to travel through this hole, so I'll enter from that side. Let's rendezvous at the bottom of the Crater, shall we?"
Little White stared hard at Ling Yun before disappearing down the hole.
Ling Yun was not in a hurry. He ensured that there was no one nearby before going to the edge of the crater.
He stopped at the edge and extended his neck in a bid to make out what was at the bottom.
Ling Yun knew how the inside of the crater looked like since he had explored it with his divine sense. It was in the shape of an inverted pail with the bottom of the pail broken.
The bottom was large, but the entrance was small. The diameter of the top was about three hundred square meters while the bottom was about four hundred. There were no obstacles in between.
It was dark and eerie. No trace of light could be seen. Ling Yun could only see up to thirty meters with his Physique Tempering Stage Level Three vision. The rest was an abyss of darkness.
In this quiet night, he could clearly hear the rapids of the river echoing from below as though millions of horses were galloping through.
Ling Yun steeled his heart. Since he had decided to explore the crater, there was no room for fear. After careful observation, he found a place that could be a good foothold about eight meters into the crater and jumped right in!